


Shield High School

by FemSanzo291



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, American Sign Language, Archery, Blood and Injury, Bullying, Deaf Clint Barton, Genderfluid Loki (Marvel), Knives, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Child Abuse, Prosthesis
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2020-12-17 06:46:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21050048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FemSanzo291/pseuds/FemSanzo291
Summary: Clint Barton joins Shield High after being tossed from a moving vehicle just the spring before. So, who can blame him when he's reluctant to trust the people around him? Will the close nit group in Dorm B be able to get him to open up?





	1. Moving into the Dorms

**Author's Note:**

> I do have a few chapters of this pre-written, but after that there is almost nothing... so yeah. I am in collage and trying to pass Calc 2 right now so do not expect a regular update seclude.
> 
> The Fire Emblem characters are just there to fill out the teams and because I'm obsessed with Fire Emblem: Three Houses right now. You don't really need to know anything about it or the characters to read this.

Clint Barton walked down the steps lugging behind him two purple duffle bags, a purple suitcase, and a purple backpack. He wasn’t looking forward to the rest of the day. He was starting at Shield High School. It’s a private school that takes in any student no matter what your grades are as long as you can do any type of sport and be at the top of your age group. Clint would have to go back up to get his archery gear before leaving with his foster father.

You see Clint had been in foster care for just over two months at this point after being tossed out of a car for pissing off the carnival that he’d been with since he was eight. Clint hadn’t been to school since he was in the third grade and that was probably why he was dreading heading to the school. Well, that and he would be staying in the dorms.

“Clint make sure to remember to put everything beside the door before coming to eat.” His foster father, Nick Fury, rounded the corner and saw Clint and lowered his voice. Clint nodded moved to place his bags by the door.

Sometimes he wondered why his foster father didn’t get a glass eye and stuck with an eye patch. Though Clint figured that it did keep his students in line when he gave you that one-eyed stare that seemed like he was looking into your soul.

Clint climbs back up the steps and pulls his archery gear down the steps as well. His bow and arrows case was a hard backpack with a tube attached to the side of it. The rest of his equipment was in another case that was rigid but not hard.

Once Clint made it into the kitchen he saw that Fury had already made his plate and one for Clint and had two table settings all laid out. Clint came and sat down across from him before digging into his breakfast.

Once the two were done they loaded up the car before heading out of town to the school. The high school rested on approximately 270 acres and while there was both an elementary school and a middle school that was associated with the school they weren’t on that land. No, the high school was ten buildings used for classes, five dormitories, a park, and three recreational buildings along with every type of sports field and practice area needed for any sport that you could think of. Fury let him out in front of his dorm before heading to his office.

Clint put his backpack on before sliding both cases onto one shoulder. He slipped his equipment bag over the handle on his suitcase before grabbing the duffles and making his way into the dorm. He swiped his ID and made his way into the building. He noticed that he was in the co-ed building and after remembering which dorm he was going to be in made his way to the elevator.

He made it up to the third floor and at the far end of the hall spotting room 322, his new dorm. He knocked on the door with his elbow hoping that his roommate was already there to open it because at that point he wouldn’t be able to open it himself because bags were starting to slip down his arms. The door opened slowly to reveal male with close-cropped brown hair and already in the school’s uniform, which he needed to go to the school store to get it. Though he did admit that the purple blazer was going to be his favorite thing about the uniform.

“Are you Clinton Barton?” The male opened the door to allow Clint to see the two beds, desks, and wardrobes.

Clint nods and the boy moves to allow Clint into the room. He points to the bed that was just a mattress and plain white sheets. Clint drops the duffles on it rests the two cases against the bed before turning to his roommate.

“Clint Barton.” Clint stuck out his hand.

“Phillip Coulson. Call me Phil.” Phil took his hand and shook it.

Clint starts to unpack his stuff and places his clothes in the wardrobe, shoves his archery equipment under the bed, and pulls his semi-decent laptop out of his bag to charge. He pulls his blanket, pillow, and stuffed eagle. The blanket and pillow were both purple with a bullseye on them. The stuffed animal was a beanie baby eagle that's wings were the US flag. The white on it was slightly discolored telling how long he'd had it.

“So I'm assuming that this is your first semester?” Phil helped Clint shove his bags into his suitcase before shoving it all under Clint's bed.

“It is. I was informed that my uniform would be covered by my scholarship.” Phil nodded as a huge bang came from down the hall followed by a woman screaming the name Stark.

“Great I thought Stark wasn't supposed to get here till Sunday.” Clint gave him a skeptical look.

“Anthony Stark son of the board of directors member Howard Stark. He’s a bit of a menace and normally doesn't arrive till right before classes start. The girl who screamed was Natasha Romanoff and she's a martial arts scholarship student.”

Clint nods. He wondered why his new roommate was being so helpful and he started to run his fingers along the sides of his shirt. He'd not even asked about why he was wearing hearing aids which were normally the first thing out of someone's mouth when they meet him. Clint hears a knock at the door and Phil walks over and opens the door. Clint looks over Phil's shoulder to see a red-headed woman who was wearing a tank top and jeans.

“Phil, did you get assigned a new roommate this year?” She asked looking directly at Clint.

“Yes, I did Natasha, meet Clint Barton he's an archery scholarship student. Clint meet Natasha Romanoff.” Phil introduced. Clint nodded to her and she didn't make him shake her hand.

Natasha sat down at Phil's desk. “Do you want to know what Stark did this time, and I swear that Pepper is going to kill him one day.”

“What did he do this time?” Phil dropped down onto his bed and looked like he wanted to strangle Stark without even hearing what he'd done.

“Well don't leave the dorm until Pepper and Sam come back with all of our IDs. Stark reset the whole buildings swipe access and well they can't figure out why they couldn't get the old ones to work so they are reissuing everybody's.”

“Alright. I guess we're going to have to wait to go get your uniform then. Natasha who else has made it here?” Clint's eyes widened when he realized that he would be meeting all the people that Natasha and Phil called friends. His hands clenched down on his shirt before he relaxed them and he dove for his bow case before running out of the dorm and down to the first floor and out the building. Clint raced off to where he had seen the archery/rifle ranges to have been when he'd visited in the summer.

The archery range was set with the back wall also being the back wall of the riflery range. The rage had gray walls that had an area that was equal to the lobby that was set up for people to watch what was going on in the range and was protected by plexiglass so that no-one watching got hurt. There were twelve targets set up at the end of the range with the shooting line painted on the floor in purple spray paint.

He goes to the last target, set up, and started to shoot. His bow was a beautiful purple and black recurve bow. Each shot landed around the bullseye and when he ran out of arrows he walked and pulled them out of the target and started again. He did this ten times before his fingers started to bleed and continued even as his bowstring was stained red. After thirteen rounds he went to pull back the string and when he released it, it scrapped down his right arm leaving a red welt that had blood beaded upon it.

After twenty-five rounds, he could no longer pull the string back and slid to the ground. His thoughts raced back to what had caused him running out here in the first place. He needed to get away from people that he didn't know the intentions of. People that seemed nice, but he knew better than to trust. The last person he trusted tossed him from a moving car. Before he passed out he heard the door being pushed open and then someone rushing towards him.


	2. Looking for Clint

Meanwhile, Phil was worried. It had been over two hours since he'd seen his new roommate, but since their floor had yet to get new IDs he couldn't just leave to go look for him. He wasn't even sure that Pepper and Sam, the two floor RAs, had even managed to get the full list of IDs that needed to be replaced after Stark's little stunt. Natasha had been recruited to allow people into the dorm from their floor so that left Phil alone to pace in his room.

That's when a knock came at his door. He hurried over and opened the door. Standing on the other side was Steve Rogers his next-door neighbor.

“Hey heard from Nat that you got a new roommate that ran off earlier.” Phil let Steve inside and plopped down on his bed.

“Yes, but I can't go find him because of Stark. Because if you are in the dorm then leave and make Pepper or Sam come to look for you after something like this, you just make them even madder.” Steve nodded in agreement.

They sat in the dorm talking back and forth till another knock came at the door about a half-hour later and Steve stood and opened it to reveal a strawberry blond woman who was wearing a blouse and skirt. She had an envelope that looked like it was about half full.

“Steve, here is your and Barnes's ID cards.” She hands over two cards from the bag before looking at Phil. “Sam's coming with yours and your roommate's, Phil. I only had Barnes's because Sam had given it to me.” She walks off to the other side of the hall to hand out the rest of the IDs.

“Do you want me to start looking for your roommate?” Steve pulled out his wallet and slide the ID cards into it.

“No. He hasn't met you and you'd likely make him run off again.” Phil laid down to wait for Sam to come around to his dorm as Steve left. It was ten more minutes before Sam knocked at the still opened door.

“Phil, is your new roommate one Clinton Barton?” Sam had two IDs in his hand.

“Yes, he is. I'm going to take his new one to him.” Phil took both the IDs from Sam and made his way out of the dorm. He had noticed that Clint had taken the case for his bow so he decided to check the ranges first. On his way there he saw Kate Bishop and a few members of the staff running towards the rages. He picked up his pace to catch up with them. When they made it into the rage the first thing that occurred to Phil was the strong smell of blood. His first thought was that someone must have left the middle door between the lobby and the rage open.

Kate pointed the staff to the archery range door and he followed them in and going around the edge of the range knowing that he’d be able to see what was going on. What he saw shocked him. Laying against the wall was Clint. His fingertips on his left hand were bleeding sluggishly.

Kate had already removed his bow from his hands and when one of them came back with the stretchers kept at the range. They loaded him onto it before taking him to the infirmary. Phil and Kate stayed behind to pack back up his bow and clean the range.

Phil knowing that you should replace the target no matter which range you were in went over to the pack that was sitting on the shelf and pulled out a new one before making his way down the range and when he pulled the arrows loose so he could pull down the target there were only ten holes in the target. Phil hung up the new one before heading back down the range making sure that he had all ten of the arrows that had been in the target.

“Kate was there any other targets used today?” Phil asked as he stepped back onto the raised shooting platform.

“No, why?” Kate was tearing down and putting away Clint’s bow with careful hands.

“Because Clint had ten arrows and his target has only ten holes, and I’m assuming if he caused his fingers to bleed it wasn’t with ten shoots, even without finger guards.” He places each arrow into the tube on the side of the bow case.

Kate took the target and looked at it. “I sure hope he's an archery scholarship student. If he shot this well without any of the asseting gear I can't wait to see what he can do with it.”

Kate had finished packing up Clint's bow and zipped the case before leaning it against the wall that Clint had been collapsed against ten minutes before. It was then that Kate looked at Phil with a critical eye.

“Coulson that was your new roommate.”

“Yeah, his name is Clint Barton he’s here on archery scholarship.” Phil pulls out Clint’s ID from where he’d shoved it in his hurry to leave the dorm. Across the top of the card was Shield High Eagle Card in white. Clint’s face stood out on the right side of the card against the purple background of the ID card. His name was printed in bold under that in white. On the opposite corner was SS-A, indicating that he was a scholarship student for archery.

“That’s good to know. Now, Coulson, I’m going to take this back up to the dorms and then go see the headmaster about him, because he’s not going to be shooting for a while. I’ll leave it with Pepper so you can collect it and put it back in your guys’ room. You go see if he’s even conscious.” Phil nodded knowing that she could run him through with one of the arrows in the bow case.

Phil made his way across the grounds to the infirmary. It was closer to the contact sports fields and therefore all the way past his dorm and past the administration building. He makes it to the infirmary to see Sarah Rogers, Steve’s mother, tending to the front desk.

“Nurse Rogers I’m here to see my friend Clint Barton.” Nurse Rogers nodded and lead Phil thought to the room that he was in. Clint was laying on his back with his left hand wrapped in bandages. He had an IV line on the other side.

“Steve told me that you had Mr. Barton’s new ID because Mr. Stark’s already messed with the system?” Phil nodded and placed Clint’s ID down next to a pair of bright purple hearing aids.

“How long do you think it will take for his fingers to heal?” Phil knew that like most of the sports students he wouldn't want to be out of practice for too long.

“Two weeks at least. He should be able to go back to light practice in a week or two.” Phil nodded and took a seat next to Clint’s bed as Nurse Rogers left the room.

Phil took the time to look over his new roommate. His hair was a dirty blond and skin tanned by outside work. Phil could see light scarring on his exposed skin, which was more than earlier because he’d been changed into a hospital gown, and a burn scar that he could tell had been bad when he first got it going down his chest.

About ten minutes into his observations the headmaster walks into the tiny room.

Phil stands before speaking. “Headmaster Fury, what are you doing here?”

“Ms. Bishop came to me telling me that Clint had been brought here, and she said that you might know what happened seeing as your his roommate.” Fury took the seat on the other side of Clint and motioned for Phil to sit back down.

Phil nodded before he started to talk. “Clint came into our room and I helped him get his stuff put away and then I was going to help him get his uniforms, but before we could leave Tony did whatever he did to the card readers. Natasha came by and I asked about who had already made it here and he took his bow case before running off. And sir, may I ask why you are so interested in Clint?”

“I’m his foster father.” Phil nods before standing to head back to his dorm.

Once he makes it back he stops at Pepper's door and knocks on it. She opens the door slowly, probably thinking that it was Tony, before spotting Phil and opening the door all the way.

“You here for your roommate's stuff?” Phil nods and Pepper moves to the desk and Phil can see Clint's bow bag leaned up against it. She picks it up and brings it over.

“Remember that our floor is going to dinner in the dining hall together tonight. Clint, if he is back, must go alright?” Phil nods and takes the bag before heading to his room.

Once he makes it back he lays down on the bed and falls asleep, knowing that someone would be sent to find him when he didn't show up to the common area.


	3. Family Dinner?

Clint wakes to see whitewashed walls instead of the gray and plexiglass walls of the archery range. As he sits up he notices the smell of disinfectant and blood along with a pinch of the needle in his arm. A woman starts towards him when she looked over at him to see him awake. Once she reaches him she picks up his hearing aids and hands them to him. He fits them into his ears and looks at her expectantly.

“You will come here every other day to have your fingers checked. You are not allowed to practice for at least a week if not longer. I have told this to both the range master and the head of the archery team. Otherwise, you are free to head back to your dorm.” She hands him his clothes and points him to the bathroom so he can change. Once Clint had changed he headed back to the dorm. Once there, he noticed that his bow bag was sitting on his bed. He wondered who had packed it up when Phil came into the room.

“Good, your back. Kate packed up your bow.” Phil sat down in his desk chair.

“Who's that?” Clint placed the bag back under his bed.

“Kate Bishop is the head of the archery team here. On that matter, our floor has weekly dinners together so I'll introduce you tonight.” Clint nodded and plopped down on his bed.

Clint had started to doze when there was a commotion in the hall before a knock came on the door. Phil stood and opened the door to reveal a six-foot-tall muscled blond man. His clothes were almost bursting at the seams.

“Son of Coul and roommate we are heading to dinner now.” Phil nods and waits for Clint to get up before leading the way to were about half of the floor was standing in front of the elevator.

A few of the students made their way down the steps, and as the elevator came back up to their floor Clint, Phil, Kate and a few other students got on. Kate saw that Clint was standing next to Phil and held out her hand.

“I’m Kate Bishop the captain of the archery team.” Clint takes her hand and notices the thick calluses on her fingers.

“Clint Barton, archery scholarship student. I herd you put my bow away earlier.” She nodded.

“I did. I also saw your target. That's some impressive barebow shooting. You'll probably end up being one of our men's individual and part of one of the teams.” Clint nodded as Kate talked about her plans for the team.

“How do you guys already know each other?” Clint and the others stepped out of the elevator on the first floor.

Phil pushed open the lobby doors and started towards the university center where all the dining options were located.

“So some of us like, Tony Stark and the Odinson brothers have known each other since kindergarten. But most of us started in middle school and were in the dorms as well. The floors for the dorms in the middle school are kept the same when you move to the high school with a few kids swapping around. Mostly our floor stayed intact with a few dropping out of the school's program or dieing over the summer.”

Clint nods in understanding as they make their way into the cafeteria. Each of them hands over their ID to be swiped and then head towards the buffet line. Clint finds a few things that looked good before following Phil over to where 5 tables had been pushed together. Clint took the end seat next to the blond boy from earlier and Phil sat on his other side.

Clint noticed a boy with shoulder-length brown hair who only had one arm. He could tell that he had lost it not too long ago because everyone seemed a little surprised to see him.

“Barnes didn't think you'd be back in school till at least next week!” A brown-headed boy yelled. His clothes were covered with grease.

“I don't have any other choice Stark. My mother can't afford for me to stay at home if we are ever going to be able to afford for me to get a prosthetic. Headmaster Fury has given me till just after Christmas break to either find a way to keep my current scholarship or to find a new one to do.”

The girl that was sitting next to Stark slapped a hand over his mouth and hissed, “If the next words out of your mouth are invasive, insensitive, or dirty I am going to make you clean all the bathrooms on the floor. Got that?” Stark nodded and she removed her hand.

“Anyways, Clint tomorrow afternoon is the first meeting of the archery team. You'll need to have been sized for your uniform by then.” Kate draws his attention away from the rest of the group.

“I still need to be sized for my school uniform as well.” Clint finished his dinner and went to put his dishes away. He then makes his way back to the table and notices the group had started to debate about who would be the first to end up in detention. It seemed like it was up in the air between the Stark boy or the black-haired teen that was seated next to the teen that grabbed them earlier.

Clint turned to Phil and asked, “Is this a common occurrence?” Phil nods as he stands to take his and Kate’s plates to be cleaned. Once he comes back Clint stands and they make their way back to the dorm. As they reach the building Phil remembers that he had said that he would take Clint to get his uniforms.

“We’ll go in the morning to get you fitted for the uniforms that you are going to need. It opens at eight so be ready to go by then.” Clint nods as Phil grabs some clothes before heading to the bathroom. Once Phil gets out he goes and showers as well.

Once he settled into his bed he fell asleep much quicker than he thought he would. Never in his life had he fallen asleep within ten minutes of laying down, typically it was closer to an hour before he fell asleep.


	4. Meeting Loki

The next morning Clint got ready for his day before going out to the common area that he had noticed the day before. It was still early and there was only one other person there, the one-armed teen from the night before. “You're the new kid rooming with Phil. Clinton right?” Barnes motions for Clint to sit opposite him. Clint nods as he does so.

“How did you lose your arm? You don't have to tell me if you don't wanna, but everyone else on the floor seems to already know.”

“Lost it in a car crash at the end of the school year last year. Missed finals and the tournament to decide who would be the captain of the marshall arts team. How did you lose your hearing?”

“There was an explosion a few years back and I was standing too close.” Barnes nodded and allowed Clint to continue to ask questions.

“How is the ranking for the sports teams decided?” Clint pulled his left hearing aid from his ear and cleaned the moisture off of it.

“At the end of the school year, everyone not graduating from high school and eighth-graders that have been accepted from the middle school are entered into a competition at the end of the year. From there depending on the sport you get the captain and co-captain at the end.”

“Alright. Are the teams solely made from scholarship students or are other students allowed?”

“Anyone. You are also allowed to use any of the facilities on campus as long as someone from the team or scholarship program is there. I often go to the shooting range.”

They sit together and talk about the scholarship programs and how they factor into the lives of each of the students' lives at Shield till Phil emerged from his and Clint's room to take Clint to get fitted for his uniforms. They quickly got him fitted before handing him the altered blazer and pants that had been done from his fitting.

After lunch, he headed to the range to see who all was there. Once he was inside he counted five recurve archers and two compound. He noticed a woman with short dark blue hair and dressed in what he thought was one of the school jackets leaned against the back wall of the range watching those already there. The woman waved him over and introduced herself as the archery team coach, Shamir Nevrand.

She then went on to explain the rules for the range and showed him back to the locker room and which locker was his. She explained that that space was used by all students in the building and how the bathrooms/changing rooms worked. Kate came back while he was fighting with the lock on his locker and she asked him his combination before easily getting the locker open. She told him how they were picky and the way to get them open.

“How do you know these things your only a freshman?” Clint looked at her and she answered with, “The middle school students last year got to pick our lockers for this year and were told how to open them.”

She then went on to explain that the brackets on the side were meant to move around so that you could hang the bow by the grip and not have it touching the bottom of the locker. Clint noticed the little shelf that he could keep his aids on when he didn't need them.

Clint headed back out to the range and looked at those who have arrived at the range since he had gone leach into the locker room. There were two more recurve archers and three more compound archers. There was a black-haired boy that he recognized from the night before. He thought that he might have been the brother to the blond that gathered them from their dorm the night before, though he wasn't sure.

When the entire team arrived Ms. Nevrand called them all to the back of the range to give the start of year speech. After that Kate said that she was going to watch because all of them took a few practice shots to see where they would be best suited.

Clint leaned against the wall watching them shoot. He saw the boy pull several knives from somewhere on himself before Ms. Nevrand called him over. They talked for a few minutes before the teen was allowed to go back to what he was doing. Clint watched as he started to throw the knives.

Clint walked over to him after the first call to retrieve arrows was called. "Hey, that looks interesting do you mind teaching me?”

The boy nodded before handing him one of the knives. He proceeded to show him how to throw them before allowing Clint to throw it. It landed at the bottom of the eight ring.

"Well, you've got a good aim. Most wouldn't be able to land it on the target at all with their first try.” He handed a few more knives to Clint before turning back to his target and throwing it again.

Clint spent the rest of the practice throwing knives. Once the practice was over he handed the knives back to the boy. "My name is Loki. It's nice to meet someone who doesn't start running when I pull out my knives.”

"I've spent some time around knife throwers. I've just not ever been taught.” Clint looks straight at him before continuing, "Clint Barton by the way.”

"Loki Odinson." Loki held out his hand for Clint to shake. Clint took it. That was the start of a friendship that would last through adulthood.


	5. First Day of Classes

Clint was dreading his first class at Shield. He hadn't had formal education since he was eight and in the third grade. He really didn't think that he would even know the concepts that would be talked about at the lowest level of English class. On that matter, he was following the Odinson brothers to the English Class that the three of them had together. He had been placed with the remedial English class. There were very few students whose first language was English in his class.

As the three entered the classroom Loki seemed to realize who's classroom they were in.

"Well, We get to have Mr. James again. This will be fun.” Loki and Thor went to seats with their names on them. This meant that Clint would have to find his sent and it would likely be that he wasn't anywhere near anyone he knew and knew that he wasn't the best academically.

Once the rest of the class came into the room and the teacher had as well the class started. He handed out the syllabus, and as Clint looked over it he hardly could read what was there. He looked back up at the teacher as he started to go over the books that they would cover that year. He didn't know any of them and he wondered whether or not he would even be able to read any of them. His reading skills had been deplorable when he was being formally educated when he was younger he didn't even want to know how bad they were now that he hadn't had a formal education in seven years.

The teacher started to hand out the first book that we were going to read, which was Romeo and Juliet. He explained that they would popcorn read the first not before going on from there. How they would read would be five lines each.

As they tossed around the reading Chat only knew where they were because each of his fellow students never read more than the five lines.

When they called on Clint he found his lines and started to read, “I will frown? as I pass by, and let them take it as they list. Nay? as they dare. I will bite my thu...thumb at them, which is a dis..disgrace to them, if they bear? it.” Clint was cut off by the teacher.

"You are a disgrace. Not even able to pronounce some of the basic words given. Do you even know what you just-” Mr. James was cut off by a knife landing in the whiteboard beside his head.

“Loki, no!” Clint turned to see Thor gripping Loki's arm which held another knife. James looked over at them before starting on another tirade.

“Odinson you will be getting detention for this.” James pulled a yellow disciplinary form from his desk, but the bell rang and Loki, Thor, and Clint got their stuff before making a mad dash for the door.

Once they were in the hall Clint turned to Loki and said, "You didn't have to do that.”

"Nonsense. He had no right to do that. He knows that class is full of students that wouldn't fully understand what Shakespeare meant when he wrote these plays, especially for the students that barely passed eighth grade English.” Loki started off to his next class which was physics.

"Do not worry Clint, my friend. Loki will end up in detention for weapons passion/threatening a teacher many times this year.” Thor says with a straight face waving it off as he leads Clint down to their history class.

Once they were there Clint found a seat next to Phil who was already there. Thor sat on Clint's other side. When the teacher came in she introduced herself as Peggy Carter.

She handed out her syllabus and Clint was glad that more of the words on the paper he could understand and knew what they meant. There still were a few that he didn't know, but he was sure that they would cover them in due time. She then passed out their textbooks before asking it they had any questions.

Thor held up his hand and when Ms. Carter called on him he asked, “How many tests will there be?”

"At most five, but I normally only give three. There will be multiple-choice, short answer, and fill in the blank on all of my tests.” She answered. "Any other questions?”

When no one else raised their hand, she looked down at the papers on her desk before heading them out. "These are how your notes will always be. I will hand them out at the start of class and you will fill in the blanks.”

Clint was glad that his notes for this class would just require him to listen close enough to what was being said. Also, he knew it he missed anything he could ask either Phil or Thor for the blanks.

Then Carter got started. they made it through half of the blanks on the first page before the bell rang for them to get out of class. Clint then headed to his math class. Once he made it there he noticed Tony sitting in the front of the class. Clint decided to sit next to him.

"Tony, why are you ever in my math class?"

"Because I felt like it. Really though I fell asleep during the math placement test at the end of last year, and they sadly won't take my other math tests as placement because I fell asleep.” Tony waved it off as he pulled out an extremely battered notebook. He flipped open to a page that seemed to contain plans for a prosthetic arm.

When the teacher came in he introduced himself as Hank Pym. Tony looked up from his notebook with surprise written on his face. Pym looked at Tony before saying, "Of course I get stuck with the son of Stark."

He then handed out his syllabus before explaining how the year would go. Clint was hopeful that he would be able to understand the concepts that would be covered so that he could try to get the actual math down. He then headed out their textbooks as well before the bell rang for the end of class.

They then made the trek to the cafeteria for lunch. Kate, Thor, Loki, and Phil were already sitting at a table and Tony and Clint make there way over to them and drop their backpacks before going to get in line for lunch. Once they were back at the table Phil asked, "How have your classes been so far today?”

"Alright, but English was hell.” Clint dug into his food as Thor and Loki explained.

"We have James as our teacher and he decided that he was going to use Clint as an example and Loki threw a knife at him.” Clint nodded and Phil nodded as well.

"Mr. James can be an ass. He likes to find a student to pick on in every class. I can't believe that they put him in charge of the lowest English class though. Normally, he teaches the AP/IB/Honors classes.”

"He had our English class last year as well.” Loki finished his lunch and took his tray and dumped it.

When Clint finished he took his tray before heading to his next class. He made it to the fine arts building just as Steve did as well.

"You're going to art right?” Steve leads Clint to the art room once he nodded. The art room head a few long, white tables and a gray concrete floor. Steve took the seat closest to the whiteboard and Clint sat down next to him. Once the teacher came into the class and started Clint figured out that this would probably one of his favorite classes. They started going over what they would cover this year before being released.

Clint then headed to the science building to go to biology. Once he got to the class he saw, Natasha, Phil, Tony, and Kate were all in class with him. They had left a seat open in the middle of the group for him to sit in.

"Tony I thought you were here because of your science knowledge. Why are you even in this class?” Clint turned to the boy that was sitting behind him.

"I'm here because of my chemistry knowledge, not biology, that would be Bruce.” Tony leaned back in his seat.

Once the teacher entered the room and started the class Clint paid attention. This class Clint realized he knew none of the words that the teacher was saying. That was at least he didn't know any of the science words. When the teacher announced that their textbooks would be kept in the classroom the whole class cheered.

Then the bell rang and Clint went to the gym with Natasha, Tony, and Kate. He was sad that Phil had a different gym class than him even though they were at the same time. Once they were seated the teacher introduced himself before going over what they would be doing that year. That included a swimming module in September/October. Though that one would be with the other gym classes was the only reason that Clint was looking forward to it at all.

Then they were dismissed to walk around the gym till the end of class. Kate came up beside him as he started to walk. "So on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you will have archery club after your gym class, and will not have one of your other classes.” Clint nodded and they continued to walk. He knew that it would still be a while before he would be allowed to shoot but he didn't care. It would be getting him out of one of the more academic classes. Once the gym let out he made his way to his dorm before heading to the range for the meet.

Once he got there Kate tossed him out saying that the nurse wanted to see him about his fingers. So he headed there. When nurse Rogers pulled the bandages off his fingers and he saw the damage that the bowstring had done he flinched. His fingers were raw and still weeping slightly. Nurse Rogers tisked before placing cream on his fingers and rebandaging them. She went over what she wanted him to do for a while and wanted him back on Wednesday. He left and headed back to his dorm.


	6. Clint Gets Bullied

Two days into Classes Clint figured life wouldn’t be so bad at Shield if he could get a different English teacher. He’d just left the class and the boy that sat directly behind him came up to him. He was blond, but it had been dyed that way because his roots were a dark brown. His uniform was ruffled and he hadn’t buttoned the jacket.

“Hello, you’re the new student in Dorm B, right?”

“I am. My name is Clint Barton.”

“Which means your Coulson's roommate, right?” The boy was a fast talker and it seemed like he never slows down.

“Yes, who are you and why does this matter?” Clint was worried that this boy wanted to do something to hurt his new friend, and wasn’t that a thought, he’d made his first friend that he could remember.

“Coulson used to run a study session for the English class. I was wondering if you could get him to do it again.” The by said before running off, but before he got too far he turned back. “I’m Pietro Maximoff by the way!” He then dashed off out of Clint’s sight.

Clint realized that he’d been standing in one place way too long and cussed as he rushed off to his history class. He ended up being a few minutes late, but Ms. Carter didn’t look at him any longer than to hand him his notes sheet and send him to his seat. Once he got his pen out Coulson passed his notes over for Clint to copy. He’d only missed two lines and so he made quick work before passing them back.

The rest of the class was pretty boring in comparison, and he left with Phil right next to him.

“So, why were you late to class?” Phil asked as they walked down the hall and to the math building.

“Pietro Maximoff stopped me after English. Asked about you.”

“What did he want?”

“He asked me to ask you about doing English tutoring sessions again.”

Phil shakes his head before heading in the exact opposite direction of Clint. He yells his answer back at Clint, “Tell him to ask me himself!”

Clint giggles before running off to class. He makes it to his math class just before the start of class and that Loki was sitting in the seat beside the one that he’d been sitting in for the past two days.

“I didn’t know that you were in this class Loki.” Clint sat down next to Loki and pulled his math textbook from his bag.

“Fury wanted to talk to me Monday, caught me before this class, and yesterday I just didn’t feel like coming.” Clint nodded and turned to the front of the class as Mr. Pym entered the classroom.

Clint spent the class trying to decipher handwriting and wishing Pym would face the class a bit more than he was. His words being jumbled up by the time they reached his aids. He has all the writing that was on the board, but without the explanation, he would be screwed.

Clint looked over at Loki's notes to see his handwriting jumbled and with some misspellings. Then he looked over at Tony to see him asleep. He wished that he could sleep through his classes like Tony did their math classes. It would be horrible for his grades though.

As Pym let them out of class, Clint stood and shoved Tony awake. Tony sat bolt upright before sanding and walking out of the class. Loki walks out of the class ahead of Clint who is tugged back into the classroom after the teacher had left by his backpack strap.

“What the hell?” Clint yelled as he was shoved up against the wall. The boy who had grabbed him reached up and grabbed Clint’s left hearing aid from his ear.

“What are you? A fucking gay? Purple’s a girl's color.” The boy said just before he was torn off Clint by a much taller boy than either of them.

“So what if he is? It shouldn’t be your problem that he likes the color.” The boy says before taking the aid back from the bully. He hands it back to Clint before shoving the bully out of the classroom.

“Thanks for that,” Clint says as he slips the aid back into his ear after making sure that it wasn’t damaged.

“You’re welcome. I’m Quill, Peter Quill by the way. I’ve seen you around the dorm building. Your first year here?”

“Yeah, I’m Clint Barton,” Clint answers as he walks out of the room to see both Tony and Loki there.

“There you are. I was worried when you didn’t follow us out of the class.” Loki had a somewhat worried look on his face.

“It’s nothing. Let’s get to lunch before we don’t have any time to eat.” Clint steadfastly looks head and forces the other two back the way they came. Quill trailed behind them till after they had left the building. They make it to the cafeteria in record time with Clint staying silent on what had happened after their math class.

They get their lunch and sit down next to Phil and Thor. Both of whom look at the trio with a questioning look on their faces. Phil had taken one look at his roommate and decided that someone decided to bully or at least said something to him. Also, Clint wasn’t looking at any of them at all. No, he was steadfastly looking at his food and his eyes weren’t venturing any higher than that.

“Clint, you alright there?” Phil asked.

“Yeah.” Clint didn’t lookup. He quickly finished his lunch before rushing off.

“Anyone know what happened to our friend?” Thor asked.

“Quill might he left the math class when Clint did,” Loki answered.

“Does anyone have another class with Quill today?” Tony asked as they all stood.

“I have PE with him,” Coulson answers.

They all put their trays away and head out of the cafeteria and to their next classes. Coulson was just waiting on the fact that he would be able to talk to Quill during PE. They weren’t doing anything too intensive right now so it should be possible.

Once he got to the gym Phil was approached by Quill.

"I heard that you might know something about my roommate." Phil and Quill walked back to the changing room.

“I do if your roommate’s the new blond that’s got cool purple hearing aids.”

“He is.”

Quill nodded and pulled him to the back corner of the locker room. “Clint was caught off guard by Klaue after our math class today. He shoved him up against the wall after Odinson and Stark had already left the room. Then he pulled one of Clint’s hearing aids out. He said and I quote, ‘What are you? A fucking gay? Purple’s a girls color.’”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, I pulled Klaue off him and got the hearing aid back, hopefully without damaging it.”

They got changed and headed out into the gym. Phil was distracted during class and got payment for it in the form of a basketball to the face. Phil hit the floor his back hitting first. He sat up and looked around a little confused. He got his feet under him and stood. He walked over to the gym teacher, Mr. Hill.

“You alright? You took a pretty bad hit there.”

“I think I’ll be alright. Can I sit out of the rest of class?”

“Go ahead and get changed. If you start to feel worse go to the infirmary.”

Phil nods and goes back into the locker room. He changes out of his gym clothes and back into his uniform. He sat down on the bench and waited for class to end. His thoughts wandered to Clint and how he could help him. Klaue had no room to speak on the fact that Clint was wearing purple, they all did it was the school color after all. Though Clint did have a fondness for the color. Maybe it was because Klaue called him gay? He’d have to ask Quill if he saw what Clint looked like when that was said to him or if he refuted it to see where he needed to go from there.

When Quill came back into the locker room Phil walks over to him and asks.

“Barton didn’t say a thing when Klaue yelled at him, and he looked afraid. Kinda like Riley did when he was outed as transgender.”

“Thanks, Quill.” Phil started to back up, but before he could get far Quill grabbed his arm.

“Coulson, you’re not about to confront him about it are you?”

“Nope, going to tell Loki though. They can probably get him comfortable enough to tell people when he’s ready to.”

Quill nods and lets go of Phil who runs off to find Loki. He had a plan and he was going to go through with it. Now just to get Loki in on it.


	7. Revelations

Clint made his way to Pepper’s dorm as soon as he made it up to the third floor. He wondered if she knew of anyone that would show him how to do the math and would be willing to tutor him. He knocked on her dorm door and she opened it after a minute.

“Hey, Clint what do you need?” She leaned up against her door and gave him a kind look.

“I’ve been having problems understanding Mr. Pym, my math teacher, during class, and I was wondering if you knew anyone who would be willing to tutor me?” Clint’s hands were fidgeting in front of his body. 

“Tony, Bruce, Rhodey, or if you don’t feel comfortable with any of them I could. I was Loki’s tutor last year.” Pepper looks at him with kind eyes and it causes his hands to calm down.

It was then that there was a loud bang of a door hitting a wall. Pepper looked down the hall ready to scold to see Loki, in a dress. Pepper smiled at them and called out, “Loki come here for a minute.”

That caused Clint to turn around at Loki. His jaw dropped as his eyes landed on the dress. ‘He looks . . . pretty.’ Loki had put his hair in a braid around the top of his hair and allowing the rest to flow free. It worked well in the simple green and gold sundress. 

Clint’s brain had barely caught up with him by the time Loki started to talk. “What do you need, Pepper?”

“Clint was wondering about a tutor for math. So what are you up to?” 

“Five-foot five. Why?” 

Pepper sighed at his response. Though she continued to talk like Loki hadn’t just given the most direct answer to her question. “Loki, how did you like me tutoring you last year?” 

“It was good. I’m going to go talk to the science team professor, again.” Loki heads off into the direction of the elevator.

By the time Loki was out of the room Clint’s brain still wasn’t firing on all cylinders. “Was Loki in a dress or was I dreaming?” 

“You were not dreaming. Loki, as far as I know, is genderfluid, you know what that means right?” Pepper’s voice was soft and gentle.

“I think? Isn’t where the person changes between genders?” Clint was trying hard to remember what the acrobats had told him while he’d been staying with them.

“Yes. Loki doesn’t typically want to be called by traditional pronouns and instead goes by they/them.” Pepper watches Clint’s face. He didn’t seem repulsed so that was a plus. Though he was showing such little emotion that it was worrying. Possibly something she needed to bring up with Phil.

Clint was quiet for several seconds and then he says, “So will you be my tutor?” 

“Yes. Thursdays after club, starting tomorrow?” 

“Sure.” 

Pepper nods before dismissing Clint. Clint walks in a daze to his room before he remembers that Nurse Rogers wanted to see him. So he walks down to the infirmary in a daze. Once there Nurse Rogers looked at him with worried eyes. 

“You alright there, Barton?” Nurse Rogers asked as she started to pull the bandages away.

“Mostly. I’m processing something that I learned today.” Clint answered. He looked down at his fingers to see them healing. The swelling had gone down, but he was pretty sure that he still wouldn't be allowed back on the range for a little while longer. 

“What was that?” She asked as she closely examined his fingers.

“Loki’s genderfluid.” 

“How does that make you feel?” She asked as she started to wrap his fingers.

“Nothing bad, it’s just odd?” Clint pauses to think. “No, not odd, different.” 

“Do you still want to be friends with Loki?” she asked as she taped down the bandages.

“I do.” Clint’s face was alight with such determination that it caused Nurse Rogers to smile.

“That’s all that matters. Now on the subject of your fingers. You are still not allowed to train.”

Clint nodded and slid from the seat. He made his way back to the dorm thinking about what he’d learned. Loki was genderfluid and he didn’t hide it. Maybe he could be himself too. Though he didn’t know what Phil thought about homosexual people and he didn’t want to share a dorm with someone who hated him. It was a dangerous thing. You wanted the people who slept next to you to like you or they could just kill you in your sleep. He swiped his ID and made his way up to his dorm.

Once there, he sat down on his bed and sat against the wall. He pulled his stuffed eagle and thought back on when Barny had stolen it for them when they first entered foster care. It was the only thing he had from back then and he wasn’t sure where Barny had gotten it from. He’d just handed it to him after Clint couldn’t stop crying. That was when he learned that being different didn’t help you in the world, that had just been reinforced when they ran away. 

His thoughts were interrupted when he could feel the vibrations of someone hitting the wall. He knew that Steve and Bucky had the room beside him and got up to see what was wrong. He knocked on the door realizing he still had ahold of his eagle. I was too late to go back and put it back on his bed, so he just stood there waiting for the door to open.

“Clint, you alright?” Bucky asked as he opened the door.

“I’m more worried about you You tossed yourself against the wall pretty hard.”

“You heard that?” 

“No, I felt it. I’d been sitting against the wall.”

“Sorry, about that. Didn’t think you or Phil were even here. Most of the teams have meetings right now.” 

“Can’t shoot, and I’m pretty sure that if I did go to the range Kate would murder me. What about you?” Clint rubbed his hands along his eagle’s wings.

“I can’t continue doing martial arts with a single arm. My balance is too far off. I’m not good enough at anything else that the school offers scholarships for.”

“Phil said that you were in his English class. Why not try something with writing?”

“I might do that.” Bucky then raises his hand up to his face and with fingers touching his chin with an open palm moves his hand forward.

Clint looks shocked at the ASL. Bucky smiled and said, “Loki and Pepper brought it to our attention that we should probably know ASL in case you can’t wear your hearing aids or we go somewhere loud.”

Clint nods and stumbles back to his room. He sits down on his bed and thinks about the revelations that he’d had over the day. ‘Loki’s genderfluid and asked the others to learn ASL.’

“Hell, I don’t even know that much ASL,” Clint muttered.

“What do you mean you don’t know ASL?” Phil asked.

Clint jumped and looked at Phil. “I lost some of my hearing before I was placed in foster care, and there I wasn’t taught much while there. Then I ran away and learned some while on the run from books in public libraries. Then I lost more of my hearing. Fury focused on getting me tutored in the basic classes I’d have here. So I know a little, but overall not a lot.”

“Well, then I’ll just have to teach you.” Phil sets his books down and digs through his draws till he finds a little black notebook.

“How do you know ASL anyway?”

“My younger cousin was born deaf. Her parents couldn’t afford her to get a cochlear implant and she doesn’t benefit much from her hearing aids so we all got together and learned sign language and helped her learn it.”

Clint nodded. They spent the next several hours going over what Clint knew before Phil started to show him new signs. After a while, there was a knock on the door. Phil got up and answered it. When he opened the door Natasha pushed her way into the room.

“Come on you idiots. You two haven’t eaten since lunch and the dining hall closes in an hour.” She says before she grabs Clint by his arm and drags him off the bed. 


	8. A Late Night and Archery Club

Clint woke with a start and looked wildly around the room trying to figure out where he was. He could just make out someone asleep across the room and after he looked a bit harder he could tell that it wasn't his brother, but his roommate. He fell back onto the bed and laid there for a minute before sitting back up. He knew he wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep so he grabbed his hearing aids and his laptop before heading out into the hall and up to the common area. He sat down on one of the couches and slipped his right aid in before opening up his laptop.

He looked up some ASL lessons on his laptop and spent several minutes repeating the signs before moving on to the next one. After the third one, he felt a presence behind him and turned his head to see Loki standing there. Clint waved at Loki before turning back to his work. Loki sat down next to him and watched his hands. They sat like that for a while before Bucky emerged from the hall with his laptop in hand. He sat down on the floor facing Clint and Loki and placed his laptop on the coffee table.

“So what were you two doing?” Bucky opened his laptop and turned it on. Adding another light to the still dark room. It also allowed Clint to see that Bucky did have some of his left arm, which was from about elbow up.

“Clint’s been working on ASL. I’ve been watching.”

Bucky nodded to Loki’s answer. Neither of them questioning why Clint was working on ASL. They all went back to doing what they had been in silence. After a while, Bucky fell back onto his back and Clint looked up from the sign for archery to look over at him.

Suddenly there was a bang from down the hall before it was followed by at least half of the floor yelling some variation of, "Go to sleep, Tony!" Then there was an extremely loud sore that Loki shook his head at.

"Tony wakes most of the floor, but my brother sleeps through it. Of course, he does."

"Yep." Bucky doesn't even try to sit up to look at the other two. Clint moves to place his laptop on the coffee table and looks at the other two.

"Will they be mad when they realize that we are up?" Clint grabbed the edge of his shirt and started to fiddle with it.

Bucky sat up a little before answering, "They don't mind as much. You'll probably get a stink eye from Phil or Pepper in the morning, but otherwise no."

Clint nodded and went back to work. Bucky fell back onto his back and Loki let their head hit the back of the couch.

At some point, all three of them fell asleep in the common area. Clint and Loki were a mess of tangled limbs on the couch and Bucky was still in the same place on the floor, and even though those coming out of their rooms were not quite the three stayed asleep.

“Oh look, there is a Barns Pancake and a Cliki pile.” Tony gets a slap to the head from Rhodey.

Phil walked over to Clint and Loki and shook them awake before Tony could take pictures of the two. Both of them woke and separated in slow motion. Clint’s hearing aid had slipped out and he picked it back up and slipped it in before reaching into his pocket and slipping it in.

“Tony wake you with his explosion last night?” Phil asked as Steve woke Bucky.

“I woke up before that.”

Phil nodded. “Go get ready for classes. We have about an hour and a half before our first class. Do you want me to get you anything from the cafeteria?”

Clint shakes his head before heading to his dorm to take a shower and change into his uniform. He heads straight to his English class when he’s done and gets there just before the teacher. He sits through the most grueling English class so far before leaving and going to his math class. On his way there Loki grabbed him by his collar.

“Did you eat before coming to class?”

“No, I’m not hungry,” Clint answered as they walked into the math building.

Loki didn’t press Clint, but his face showed displeasure at the answer. They walked into the class and sat down in their desks. Tony was already there and was drawing something in his notebook. They sat in their seats and waited for Pym to show up. When he did, he took one look at the front row and sighed. He turned to the board and started the class though.

Clint made sure to get all of his notes written down before the end of class. After class, he headed back to the English building for his foreign language class. He hated the fact that he was required to take a foreign language. Not that he didn’t want to learn one, but because it was hard to associate the new sounds with what they should be. He sat down next to Bruce and sat through the grueling process of trying to learn the German alphabet.

He lays his head down on his desk before the teacher can call on him. Eventually, Bruce pokes him on his side and cups his hands up next to his eyes before moving them forward.

Clint replies with his index and middle fingers hitting his extended thumb. Soon the teacher dismisses the class and Clint stands and makes his way to the infirmary.

He makes his way back to Nurse Rogers so that she can check his fingers. She unwraps them before saying, "Your fingers are looking good. You can go back to practice, but I want you to use both your preferred finger guard and have them wrapped. Do you know how to wrap them?"

Clint nodded. She smiles and gives him a roll of bandages before saying, "I want you to come back if you run out or you break the skin before next week. You got that?"

"Yes, ma'am. But I can go without the bandages otherwise?"

She nods.

Clint leaves the infirmary and heads to his next class as the bell rings. He makes it to choir class just before it started. He takes his normal place next to Steve. The class starts and he has the same thoughts about the choir as he does German. He can’t hear it so it’s hard to do, and if he’d had the choice he wouldn’t be doing it.

“Barton are you tone deaf?” the teacher asks after she cuts them off.

Clint turns his ear toward the teacher and pointed at his ear and the bright purple hearing aid before saying, “Nope, just deaf deaf.”

The teacher blushes before moving on. Clint giggles to himself and as soon as he’s let out he makes his way to the gym. At his point, he starts to feel lightheaded, but he’s done whole shows without eating for days so he’s pretty sure that he’ll make it through both gym and his archery class.

Kate catches him as soon as he walks into the gym and notices that he doesn’t have the bandages around his fingers. “Are you free to practice again?”

“Yep, got approved at lunch. I just have to wear both the bandages that Nurse Rogers gave me along with a finger guard.” Clint makes his way back to the changing room. He changes into his gym clothes and makes his way back out onto the gym floor.

By the end of class, Clint could see spots but they cleared up as he started towards the range so he just headed to the back and changed shirts, not even thinking about the huge scar on his right shoulder.

“What the hell?!?!” he heard one of the other members yell. He turned to see most of the male members of the archery team in the doorway to the changing room. Clint just grabbed his uniform shirt and slid it on before shoving his way out of the room. He goes over to his locker and hangs up his uniform jacket and shirt before grabbing his chest and arm guard. He then wraps his fingers and then slipped out his bow and strung it before grabbing his shooting glove and quiver. He headed out onto the range and took the target closest to the locker room.

He slid on his shooting glove before getting ready to shoot. He knocked his arrow and took a deep breath before pulling the arrow back taking aim on the target on the other end and releasing it. It lands just outside the ten ring. Clint rolls his shoulders before reading another arrow and shooting it. That one lands in the bottom on the ten ring and Clint barely pauses before shooting his next arrow. This one lands in the x ring. He smiles and finished off his ten arrows, with most of them landing in the ten and x ring.

He felt someone’s hand on his shoulder and turned to see the dark-haired and tan-skinned recurve archer.

“You’re really good. How long have you been shooting for?”

“I’ve been shooting for about four or five years.”

“Retrieve arrows!” Kate yelled.

Clint walked forward and pulled his arrows free. He dropped them into his quiver before walking back to the shooting line. He readied his arrows and started to shoot again. This time his arrows were much closer together from the start, with most of them landing in the x ring and a few below in the ten. He retrieved his arrows and returned to the shooting line.

After the third round, he started to feel light-headed and as he left the shooting line he felt himself tipping forward and then hitting the floor.


	9. A Bad Day

When Clint opened his eyes he could see the white walls of the infirmary and sighs. He sat up to see Loki and Phil standing at the end of the bed. He couldn’t hear himself as he moved around all that well so he figured that someone had removed his hearing aids. He looked over at the table and saw that both his aids were sitting on the table there. When he lifted his hand to grab them he saw the IV line. Clint finished his movement and grabbed the hearing aids and slid them into his ears. 

“Clint, what the hell were you thinking? Not eating all day? Loki told me that you guys had been up for hours last night, and that’s not a bad thing all of us have problems sleeping, but you cannot go that long on the little bit of food that you ate yesterday!” Phil was pissed and that was almost an understatement, his face turned red.

Clint just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want to bring up the fact that he'd done much more strenuous archery shows after days of eating the bare minimum. He didn't want to bring up his past at all if he could help it. He didn’t want his friends to know that he’d actually ran away and joined the circus. So he just stayed silent. 

“Mr. Barton, you are free to go when you are ready to. I hope not to see you here for a few weeks,” Nurse Rogers says as she comes into the room. Clint nods and slips out of the bed. He slides on his shoes and doesn’t really look at Phil or Loki as he walks out of the room. 

He makes it halfway to the dorms before Loki stops him and says, "You are eating. Now."

Clint turns towards the caf and Loki and Phil follow him there. He gets some food before sitting close to where they normally do. Clint eats his food before heading back to the dorm. It had been a long day and all he wanted to do was lay down and sleep. He makes it back, and Pepper is sitting in the commons area with her math notes.

Clint walks over to her before saying, “I’m too tired to want to do any math. Is that alright with you?”

Pepper nods and sends him off to his room. Clint goes and doesn’t even think about changing before laying down on the bed and falling asleep.

* * *

The next day Clint woke up in a much better mood than when he went to sleep. He went and took a shower before realizing that he didn’t have his uniform jacket. He looked everywhere in his side of the room before remembering that he’d taken it off before archery practice and had left it in his locker. 

Clint realized that if he didn’t get going soon he wouldn’t be able to eat before English. So he shoved on his feet into his shoes and headed to the cafeteria. Once there he saw both Kate and Phil sitting in their normal spot. Kate spotted him and waved him over. Clint sat in the empty seat opposite them. 

“Did you put my bow away yesterday, Kate?” Clint asked before he started to eat. 

“I did. I put it in your locker. I saw that you had your uniform shirt and jacket in there.” Kate answered.

“You didn’t get it out and bring it back?” 

“Nope, sorry. Anyway, unless it’s a competition day you don’t really need to worry about the full uniform.” 

Clint nodded. He finished eating about the same time as the others and they all walked out onto the grounds together. They split off not long after each heading in their own direction for the class. Clint sits in his seat just before the bell rings. He sits through his class paying attention to what he could hear and hoped to hell that Loki had gotten all of the notes for the class because Mr. James wouldn’t talk when he wasn’t facing the board. 

Once they were dismissed Clint headed to his next class and sat down. Ms. Carter didn’t face the board at all when speaking and instead faced the class for most of it. That meant that he could read her lips along with what little that his aids picked up consistently. Then they were dismissed and Clint had to again hope that Loki got all of their notes in their math class so that when he went to their study session with Pepper they’d have something to build off of. 

After class let out he turned off his hearing aid as he made his way to the cafeteria for lunch. He didn’t turn them back on until after he got to the next class. He knew that he probably bothered some of his friends, but he was too tired to care. 

After his classes for the day, he headed back to his dorm. He was too tired to care about doing anything else and so he laid down on his bed. His head was killing him and they’d announced that the inner school archery competition would be that next weekend. He went to sleep leaving this world for one of his dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took so long, but college sucks.
> 
> Also I fell into another fandom, which means I'm both reading and writing for it now, which also sucks. So that means I can't promise any updates here soon.


	10. The Inter-School Archery Competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a wild year. I went from having classes and going to work to doing online classes only. So, sorry for not updating sooner, but this chapter gave me hell, so yeah. 
> 
> I hope you all are staying safe!

Clint walked down to the archery range with Kate and Phil. It was the day of the inner school archery competition. Clint didn’t know why, but he was nervous. He knew that about half of Dorm B would be there to watch. Most of those who wouldn’t be there because they had their competitions to go to. Though they said that they would be there as soon as they possibly could to cheer him on. The three walked into the range and Phil split from the other two to go to the stands and Kate and Clint continued to the locker room.

Clint moved to his locker and pulled his uniform from his locker and walked back to the changing rooms to change into it. Once he was dressed in the purple and gold shirt of the school along with the black pants that went along with the shirt and slid on his chest guard. He then headed back out and strung his bow and put on his arm guard. He then slid his quiver onto his back. He then headed out to the range to wait on the competition to start. He didn’t have to wait long. 

Kate had told him that he would be part of the last match for the first round. They’d had two of the official judges for the region come down so that the students could get used to the competition format even if they hadn’t ever competed before. It was something that Clint liked about this.

Clint watched as two of his classmates stepped up to the shooting line. He watched as they were read the rules and then they started to shoot. He watched as they traded turns to shoot and after three arrows each they took a break to score the arrows and bring them back. Then they announced the scores for the first round before starting the second round. After switching back and forth with who was shooting for the second round the scores were tallied a second time and then put up on the big screen. Clint walked back into the locker room after the first round, not needing to see the rest of his teammates get eliminated one by one.

Soon it was his turn and Clint walked to the second target. He’d been told in advance that his target would be number two for the first round and depending on how it goes with a full audience it would be his no matter what. He walked up to it, his bow gripped lightly in his hand. 

He watched as the judge came and had them sign the sheet that he knew that the target was blank when they started. Then both of them knocked an arrow. Clint knew that he was to shoot second and waited for the light around his target. It lit with a slight sound that he guessed was the buzzer. Clint pulled his string back as he took aim and after a few seconds took the shot. The shot landed just inside the X ring. He waited again for the ring to light before taking his shot. This one landed in the target next to the first. It was another eleven. Soon it was the third shoot and he took it. It landed just on the other side of the first arrow and was probably a ten. 

Clint looked up at the scoreboard to see that the score was currently 32 - 30 in Clint’s favor. It was then that Clint noticed that it was Kate gathering his arrows at the target. She walked back up the length of the range and handed him his arrows before asking. “Could you hear the buzzer?” 

“No, I don’t understand why. I’d been able to hear it during practice, and there aren’t many people being loud right now.” Clint slides the arrows back into his quiver and Kate walks to beside him. 

“I’ll talk to you after this end. I’m going to go inform Ms. Nevrand.” Kate walked off as they started the second end. This time Clint shot much closer together ending up with all three arrows in the X ring. A Second end score of 33 bought his overall score to 65. His opponent had a score of 58. Clint would be moving on. Clint turned to his opponent and they shook hands.

Clint went back to the locker room after one of the others brought him his arrows. Kate was standing in the far corner and walked over to her. “So what was up with the buzzer?”

“I asked Ms. Nevrand and she said that she used the one that a lot of our latter companions use to see if you’d be able to hear it. It wasn’t our normal one cause she wanted to see.” 

“You think we should practice what we’ll do if my aids are on the fritz?” 

Kate nodes. “But leave your aids in.” She runs out of the locker room. Clint goes over to his locker and checks each of his arrows for damage. When he was satisfied that they were fine he slid them back into his quiver. That was when Kate came back into the locker room. 

She walks over to him and taps him on his shoulder before putting her right hand into an l before putting her thumb against her chest. She then flips her hand so that the thumb is facing him. Clint recognized it as the movement for the sign ‘turn’. 

Clint stood and headed back to the range and up to the shooting line. He faced the sidewall so that Kate could sign to him. He could hear the judge saying something, but instead focused on the signs that Kate was doing. She first did the sign for archery then the sign for one. This told him that he was going to be shooting first. 

He took an arrow and knocked it before looking down the range. When he saw the target light up he raised his bow and took the shot. It landed right where he wanted in the X ring. The next two landed right next to the first. A perfect score of 33 for the first end. Clint smiled and turned to Kate to see her giving him a thumbs up. 

He took his arrows when Ms. Nevrand brought them to him before reading the next shot. The next three arrows landed in the last three holes. A perfect round, that granted him a score of 66. Overall his score was 124. He looked up at the board to see that the next highest score was from Claude von Regain with a score of 120. 

Clint looked over at Kate to see her talking to Ms. Nevrand. He stepped back from the shooting line as soon as he was handed his arrows and walked over to them. Kate gave him a big smile. “That was the best round I have ever seen.”

Clint’s jaw dropped. Ms. Nevrand spoke next, “In all my years teaching here, I’ve never seen a perfect sixty-six with only three holes in the target. You did good, kid.” Ms. Nevrand left to deal with the next two rounds. 

“She’s got to be kidding right?” Clint paused to adjust his aids, “Or was my aids not picking everything up?” 

“You heard correctly.” Kate gave him a big smile. “There are only two rounds left and I can’t wait to see your scores from them. I wonder if you can keep up the perfect scores?” 

“Of course.” And the next two rounds he scored sixty-six in both. His total points from the competition were 263, one point off from a perfect score. Kate wrapped him in a hug as the scores came up for the men’s scores. The next closest score was Claud von Riegan, with a score of 259. He’d been the last one that Clint had shot against. 

Clint headed back to the locker room and put his bow and quiver up before pulling off his arm and chest guard. He turned when he saw the door to the riflery range opened. Phil, Loki, and Bucky all came into the locker room. They walked over to him and congratulated him. Phil had a wrapped sandwich that he handed to Clint to eat.

“I noticed that during the second round Kate was doing interpretations for you.” Loki looked straight at Clint.

“I still had my aids in and on, Kate just thought that it would be good to practice what would happen in a competition where I didn’t have my hearing aids.” 

Loki nodded and they sat and talked while the woman’s recurve archers did the same as the men had. It was the easiest way to see who would be able to compete this year, by having them do single-elimination rounds. The compound shooters would be doing the same thing the next day with the last thing they were going to do today was the announcement of the recurve teams. The three sat in the locker room talking until then. 

Not long after Kate came in announcing her final score of 195, three points off perfect for the three rounds that the women did when all the recurve archers called into the range. Phil, Bucky, and Loki headed back to the stands while the archers headed back into the range. Ms. Nevrand was standing almost exactly between the targets and the shooting line.

** “When I call your name for the team I want you to come out here to join me until the full team has been announced.”  ** It was then that Clint noticed that she had a sheet of paper.  ** “First we will start with the men’s individual shooters: Clint Barton, Ignatz Victor, and Claude von Riegan.”  **

Clint walked forward with the second-best shooter and who he assumed was maybe the third best. They stood together near and Clint looked at the crowd to see all of his floormates signing the same thing, “Congratulations, Clint!” Instead of clapping.

** “Next, the men’s team: Ignatz Victor, Ashe Ubert, and Claude von Riegan.”  ** Clint watched as a gray-headed by joined the three.

** “Lastly before I ask the boys to leave, the Mixed team: Clint Barton and Kate Bishop!”  ** Kate joined the boys. She gave a big thumbs up to Clint before the boys headed back to the range for the women’s teams to be announced. 

Kate ends up being on the women’s team with two of the other individual archers. Once Kate joins him near the shooting line they head back to the locker room to shower and change back into their school uniforms. Clint shoves his uniform into his bag so that he could take it back and wash it. 

By the time the archery club students made it back out to the rage the stands were empty. Ms. Nevrand called for the archery team students to stay behind for a second before heading back up to the dorms. After both the compound archers and the rest of the recurve archers had left did she start. “For those only shooting in the men’s, women’s, or mixed teams this mostly applies to you. Though I might have you, individual archers, practice this as well. What it is is that you will need to get used to switching between each archer in either one minute for the three-person teams or forty seconds for the mixed team. This is for one arrow apiece. We will start this on Tuesday during class. You are dismissed.” 

The students head out and Clint turns to Kate as they walk. “Does this mean we don’t have practice after classes on Monday?” 

“It’s not a required practice. We start to lessen the number of required practices after the inter-school archery competition for us to be able to do all of our homework and have a bit more free time.” Kate explained as they walked to the dorm. Once there Kate swiped her ID to let them in and they went up to their floor. Clint tossed his bag on the floor next to bed before tossing off his uniform jacket and laying down.


End file.
